Hollywood East is a term originally used by local press in Orlando, Florida after the opening of the Disney-MGM Studios (now called Disney's Hollywood Studios) in 1989 and Universal Studios Florida in 1990 in order to attract more filmmaking business to the region. While both are legitimate studios, they are predominantly theme parks, and although many film and television productions have used these facilities since before even the theme parks were built, Orlando was not able to retain the image of "Hollywood East."[1] In more recent years, "Hollywood East" refers to the growth of the film industry in New England, particularly Massachusetts[2] and Connecticut,[3] but it has more specifically been used as branding for Plymouth Rock Studios, a movie studio under development in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 2010.[4] The name is a reference to Hollywood, California, the center of the American film industry, located on the west coast of the United States. The term as used in New England was popularized in the press in 2007 as film and television productions migrated to the east coast to take advantage of tax incentives put in place by several state governments.[5][6] Old warehouses and office buildings have been used for filming due to a lack of infrastructure in the region,[7] leading to several groups of developers coming forward with plans to build full service studios. Two notable developments in Massachusetts, Plymouth Rock Studios, based in Plymouth, and SouthField Studios, based in Weymouth were profiled in the Boston Globe in April 2008.[8] More recently Plymouth Rock Studios has come into the spotlight after passing their Plymouth Town Meeting vote in October 2008[9] and announcing a partnership with MIT Media Lab in November that was featured in the New York Times.[10] The partnership is described as "a fusion between technology and the arts" that the studio and Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe will come to define Hollywood East as a movement.[11]
The Patriot Ledger, a newspaper based in Quincy, Massachusetts, has even created a special website cataloguing all news items related to the growth of Hollywood East.[12] New England actors have been working hard to get media attention and public awareness on the benefits of the Massachusetts tax incentives for film studios and the possible development of studios.[13][14]
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One group of developers, Plymouth Rock Studios, led by former Paramount executives David Kirkpatrick and Earl Lestz, licensed the rights to the iconic Hollywood sign from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in May 2008,[15] and plan to build to a “Hollywood East” sign in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the future home of the studio. Various versions of the sign have been created by the studio, many of which are made out of natural materials to emphasize the studio's commitment to sustainability.[16]
Plymouth Rock Studios has also used their license to launch Hollywood East TV, a social networking website used for sharing user-generated material as well as videos and blogs produced by Rock Media, a branch of Rock Entertainment LLC.[17][18][19] The site, on which every user possesses their own page and the ability to upload their own content, also updates viewers on the progress of the studio through a daily webisode entitled "The Series".